Blog Banter 19 – McSpaceships?… You want drones with that?

July 22, 2010 in Humorous fiction by Blast Radius1

Welcome to the nineteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com.
This months topic comes to us from @evepress, who he asks: The CSM: CCP’s Meta Game? The CSM, an EVE players voice to CCP. Right? In the grand scheme of things yes, the players bring up issues and the CSM presents them to CCP. But in its current iteration the CSM was supposed to be given small authority to assign CCP assets to projects that the CSM thought needed work on. As it has come out, this was not the case. So fellow bloggers, is the CSM worth it, has the CSM improved the game in any way, or is it just a well thought out scam by CCP to give us players a false sense of input in the game? What’s your take?

To me, Eve is like an exclusive restaurant. The menu is definitely NOT for everyone. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been enthusing about Eve, only to hear, “Oh, I tried that game once, but it was WAY too hard. I couldn’t get into it …” or words to that effect. So the food is definitely for a certain kind of  taste, enthusiasts only. Even among those enthusiasts, however, there will be much passionate debate about which dish is the best, which wine it goes best with, and whether the waiter is from Barcelona or not. Such a restaurant can usually be found tucked away somewhere in a quiet street, known only to those who love it. Over time those enthusiasts will bring others along. Of them, a small percentage will start coming back, more regulars, and so it grows. There is a small cabal of weekly diners, whom the restaurant owner will often sit with. He knows them by name, they have his ear. They will often get him thinking about things he hasn’t spotted himself, as their view is from the customer’s perspective and his is not. He promises them that although there are many new faces around them, they are his top priority. Now the restaraunt owner starts to see the potential for more growth, some money is spent on extensions, bigger kitchen, more staff, etc. etc. Growth continues, and so an accountant is hired to take over from the owner’s wife, who is overwhelmed by the bookwork. The accountant sees that while business is good, it could be better. He gets on the phone to Mr. R, the owner. The following conversation then takes place:

Accountant: “I’ve identified the biggest problem with your growth Mr. R, you need to make the menu bigger to attract more customers. Broaden the styles on offer.”

Mr. R: “But the customers I have love it the way it is. Jules and the others are concerned we might lose our feel. They just want me to fix the air conditioning & refurbish the restrooms.”

Accountant: “No, no, no, you can’t waste money on things like that. You need to keep growing, those sort of details can be looked at later when we have more time. Now here’s a brochure on the latest ChipFry 4000, by buying this you can save significant wages on handcutting chips.”

Mr. R: “But chef would throw a fit! His hand made potato chili wedges are a big drawcard!”

Accountant:”Yes, the chef. I’ve been looking at his wages, actually. Have I shown you the brochure for the new RoboChef 500?”

Mr. R stands to become very wealthy. His accountant stands to become even wealthier. The original patrons? Well actually, Jules says he’s found this place just four streets away, very small, but the menu is so different!

It’s all in the mind, you know.

 

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